“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of a library,” Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote.
Like Borges, many of us find a little slice of heaven in a public library. There, standing straight as soldiers in tight ranks on the shelves, are thousands of books waiting just for us: stories, adventures, travel guides, histories, and a dozen other categories of the printed word. Best-sellers rub up against old favorites, and classics such as “War and Peace” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” bracket the works of less familiar authors, mines of gold waiting to be discovered.
Pitfalls
By no means, of course, is Samuels a paradise of the written word. Adult fiction, for example, contains dozens of novels of questionable morality or propriety.Similar complaints might be lodged against the children’s department. Here manga, those Japanese comic books and graphic novels and their American lookalikes, cover an entire wall, yet attract few young patrons. Some of the books in the Young Adult section reflect our larger culture with their explicit sexual themes, including a number of gay and transgender works.
The latter have drawn the ire of some parents. Several of them now take extra care when selecting stories for their children, trying to make sure the books correspond to their family values. Others accompany their teenagers into the library to prevent them from bumbling into something offensive. A few have stopped visiting the library altogether.
Here, some questions arise: How can parents negotiate the roadways of good and bad literature? What impact can all of us have on our public libraries? Most important of all, what are some ways that we can use the library to turn our children toward literature and reading?
Books and Lists About Books
There are many excellent guides that can help steer parents and older children toward good books in the library.Gladys Hunt’s “Honey for a Child’s Heart” offers hundreds of selections with descriptive blurbs for the toddler to 12-year-old crew. Along with Barbara Hampton, Hunt also wrote “Honey for a Teen’s Heart,” with hundreds of choices for readers and some great essays to inspire teens in their reading.
Search online for “lists of books for kids,” and you’ll find a profusion of recommendations. To narrow the scope of your investigation, insert your child’s age into the search. Sarah Mackenzie’s “The Read-Aloud Family” contains a fine list of literature from infancy through adolescence, in addition to touting the joys and benefits of sharing books.
Interlibrary Loans and Books Ordered
Most patrons are aware that if their public library lacks a certain book, they can request it through interlibrary loan. If your library, for instance, doesn’t own the “Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies,” put in a request form at the desk, and soon you’ll have this splendid book in your hands.A Special Tip for Teens
Though teens may be inclined to browse the shelves of the Young Adult collection, parents and teens should consider instead scouring adult fiction for novels and short stories, especially those written before 1970. Many libraries have held onto some of these dinosaurs, the popular fiction of their day, and these wonderful stories retain their power. Betty Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” Herman Wouk’s “Marjorie Morningstar,” the Kenneth Roberts stories of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, and the Western novels of Louis L’Amour—all these and other great stories can often be found awaiting new readers.Party Time
Gather with some friends at the library, spend some time browsing the stacks, take some books with you, and go out for coffee or a meal, or if you are meeting families with children, to someone’s house for refreshments. While you’re enjoying the foods and beverages, compare your books and talk about why you want to read them. It’s a great way to deepen our knowledge of our friends and to show children that others love reading.Libraries Online
Like some bibliophiles, I prefer books made of paper, ink, and glue, but many others, including the younger crew, are surely practiced at reading digital books.Practicing Discernment
We mustn’t shun or give up on our libraries. They belong to all of us, and despite some of the battles being waged in our culture and the rise of digital learning, libraries remain a foundation stone of our republic. Just as we would do in a bookshop, we must be aware of which books we wish our younger children to read and point our teenagers to selections that will help them grow in a healthy way. By teaching our children this art of discernment, they’ll learn the difference between the treasures and the rubbish on those shelves of books and will pass those lessons on to their own children.“Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers,” school librarian and First Lady Laura Bush once said. “And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.”
That’s the goal.
